New York, N.Y. – The House Judiciary Committee today will consider a prison reform bill backed by the White House but widely decried by civil rights groups as insufficient. The hearing comes days after the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law criticized the bill in a letter to members of Congress.

Inimai Chettiar, director of the Brennan Center’s Justice Program, released the following statement in advance of the markup:

“This bill is an attempt to force all of us fighting for criminal justice reform to negotiate against ourselves. There is broad agreement among a bipartisan group of lawmakers and law enforcement leaders to get real about reducing federal sentences. But now, this half-hearted bill being sold by the White House as serious reform is anything but. While it has some good provisions, in short it is a mockery of the progress we’ve made.

“We’re hopeful committee members will support bolder change and push for sentencing reform that would address systemic problems with how people end up behind bars in the first place. Only change at that scale will put us on a path toward reducing mass incarceration, and address one of the greatest civil rights issues of our time.”